It's Blindingly Obvious...

This week I’ve been heavily involved in staff engagement strategy, its importance and impact on an organisation and its objectives, particularly during times of change. As always, I’ve been raising awareness, this time with managers so that they can make positive choices in terms of the strategy they adopt.

Insights on Engagement

The MacLeod/Clarke report to Government 2009 “Engaging for Success” has been a really useful source, and says that engagement: “…at its core is a blindingly obvious but never the less often overlooked truth. If it is how the workforce performs that determines to a large extent whether companies or organisations succeed, then whether or not the workforce is positively encouraged to perform at its best should be a prime consideration for every leader and manager, and be placed at the heart of business strategy.”

Too right it's obvious! Staff engagement can be so simple, yet so often opportunities are missed to create it.

So what is engagement?

The report states that “It is most helpful to see employee engagement as a workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisations goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being.”

So how do we achieve the it? The quote below encapsulates this beautifully:

“Employee engagement strategies enable people to be the best they can at work, recognising that this can only happen if they feel respected, involved, heard, well led and valued by those they work for and with”

Sums up better than anything else I have read what staff engagement actually means. If you respect people’s views and values and involve them in planning and creating strategies, discounting nothing until it has been properly debated by you and them, you create the conditions for engagement. People also need to feel that they have been listened to, by leaders who can adjust their style and approach depending on the task, team or individual they are dealing with and who make sure people know that their work and their views matter.

It’s not rocket science, but too often managers focus only on task and process, not recognising the need to spend time with their people to achieve success.

“Engagement is about creating opportunities for employees to connect with their colleagues, managers and wider organisation”

Professor Katie Truss

If people have the chance to talk to colleagues, to management and to be informed about wider organisational issues, it prevents them becoming disconnected and feeling that things are being done to them, without their involvement.

I’ve been sharing these truths this week, raising awareness among managers about where their priorities really lie, and the choices they need to make. As always it’s about people choosing to approach their work in new ways to create different better results; changing themselves, not others.

So, a different type of awareness, and a different level of choice.

More soon…